Careerforce to kick off Workforce Development Conference

Careerforce to kick off Workforce Development Conference

MEDIA RELEASE

04 July 2017

Pay equity, suicide prevention and the state of mental health in New Zealand will be hot topics at the third Careerforce Workforce Development Conference (CWDC), hosted at Te Papa from 7-8 August 2017.

With an impressive line-up of thought provokers, sector experts and passionate leaders, Careerforce Chief Executive Ray Lind says the conference is a meeting of some of the brightest minds in New Zealand’s health, wellbeing, social and community sectors.

“This is a great opportunity for those passionate about public health and social services to come together and talk about how we can improve people’s health and community wellbeing across New Zealand,” Mr Lind says.

The conference lineup includes psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald and mental health advocate Mike King, talking about the state of mental health in New Zealand following the release of The People’s Mental Health Report.

Representatives from the major political parties have been invited to speak about their policies and plans impacting on the health, social and community sectors and industry training.

Richard Wagstaff, President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, will be addressing the impacts on the health, disability and community sectors because of pay equity and in-between travel settlements.

Hoani Jeremy Lambert, Tamariki Advocate at Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Vulnerable Children), will be talking of his mission to put children at the centre of the picture when designing services for them. Mr Lind says each of these presentations align with the Conference’s themes of co-design, leadership and success.

Mr Lind says this year’s conference will also be an occasion to celebrate the achievements of those working in the health and wellbeing sectors with the graduation of New Zealand’s first ever health and wellbeing apprentices.

“We’ve also launched the first ever Careerforce Training Excellence Awards to reward and recognise the impact our trainees and apprentices have on their communities and improving health and wellbeing outcomes for all New Zealanders,” he says.

Careerforce is the Industry Training Organisation (ITO) for the health, mental health, youth work, disability, social services and cleaning sectors. We are the Government appointed body that sets skill standards, develops and facilitates achievement of NZQA qualifications across all our sectors. For more information please see: www.careerforce.org.nz